date from the time of Peter the Great, for they arose in connection with the reforms effected in his reign and in that of his successors. It is true that Russians have been without clear ideas concerning the existence of Russian philosophy of history and of philosophy of history in general. Nevertheless, closer contact with Europe compelled thinking Russians to compare their home with the foreign world, and judgments of the present necessitated judgments of the past.
The Russian chronicler who passes by the name of Nestor propounded tasks for Russian historiographers substantially identical with those undertaken by writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Kievic twelfth-century historian drew attention to the conglomeration of ethnic types prevailing in Old Russia, and referred also to the peculiar relationship of the Russians as Slavs to their numerous nonslavic neighbours. More especially did Nestor lay stress upon the polyglot character of the Russian state.[1]
Conditions were still much the same in the state of Peter. The prevalence of foreign (chiefly Teutonic) influence, and the fact that in the parts of Russia adjacent to Europe the rôle of the Germans was so decisive for Russia, gave Nestor's utterances a living contemporary meaning. Remarkable for his day was Nestor's knowledge of the various Slav stocks, In the eighteenth century the relationship of the Russians to the Poles entered a critical stage; the incorporation of the greater part of the Polish state gave occasion for the discussion of the Slavic tongues, all the more because at this epoch the Slavs in Austria and in the Balkans were experiencing a cultural and political awakening. The historical and Slavic researches of these nonrussian Slavs, and the similar researches of the Germans, found attentive and sympathetic readers in Russia.
All these conditions were extremely favourable to the development of Russian historiography. In addition to the polyhistor Lomonosov, whose History of Russia was completed in the year 1763, there came a whole series of historians, Tatiščev, Tredjakovskii, Ščerbatov, and Boltin. The name of Karamzin may be added to complete the list.
- ↑ I refer to the oft quoted passage which describes how during the years 860 to 862 the Variag Norsemen were invited to become rulers. I draw especial attention to the fact that according to Nestor the invitation was jointly issued by the Slavs and the Finns.
